Please help our 12AA Orono Baseball team raise funds to attend a national invitational tournament in Cooperstown, NY this summer. They will be representing Orono Baseball and Minnesota among 104 teams from throughout the United States and Canada.
The team is preparing for an exciting, once-in-a-lifetime trip where they will learn about the game’s heritage and meet players from all corners of the U.S. The players are raising money necessary for registration, bunk house lodging and uniforms through a variety of fundraising events.
The 2021 12AA Cooperstown Team has several fundraisers planned this off-season to raise money for to cover tournament expenses. Please check back to support the team!
Cooperstown was truly amazing. Being on the fields is more than a dream come true. One of my favorite parts was the skills competition. One of our teammates Nick Von Bank went on to the final round in the Golden Arm competition! Another one of my favorite memories, and I'm sure my team would agree, was playing blackjack using starburst with our coach in our barrack. We also got to visit the baseball Hall of Fame. It was super cool seeing the history of the league and some of the plaques dedicated to the all-time greatest players in MLB history. On the field there was awesome competition and lots of home runs! It was really fun seeing my teammates go yard! Another thing my team and I enjoyed was getting to walk around the barracks trading pins with other teams. Overall, it was one of the best experiences ever! If you have the opportunity, take it!! ~Jackson Stinar, 2019 12AA Player
Cooperstown really was a dream come true for me and the whole team. When you are on the field you really feel like an MLB star. We played some hard teams that we did great against, it was a lot of fun to have really hard competition. While we weren’t playing baseball, we were hanging out with each other. We got to trade pins with the other teams and we also went to the hall of fame, which was very interesting to see all the great MLB stars. Speaking for myself and the team, we want to thank the parents for supporting us throughout the year, coming all the way to New York to cheer us on, and for taking us to very fun places while we weren’t on the field. We’ll always remember our Cooperstown experience! ~ Brady McPherson, 2018 12AA Player
Cooperstown, a place where dreams come to reality and your memories made will last a lifetime. The experience is amazing, getting to play baseball where the sport was created is an honor and will always be one. Hanging out with your team, meeting kids from all over the country, trading pins, and playing baseball on awesome fields is what Cooperstown is all about. The week we stayed we went 4-4, which was awesome! But i’m not going to lie, there were some pretty dang good teams out there that we ran into along the way, but it is all part of the fun getting to see some great players from all over the country and see how talented they are and actually playing them! Cooperstown will always be an everlasting experience that I am very grateful to have played there and anyone going in the future will have the time of their life. In conclusion, I would like to thank all the people who made this a reality, the parents, the coaches, Orono baseball, and Cooperstown Dreams Park, thank you. ~Oliver Giel, 2017 12AAA Player
Cooperstown was a great experience for my team and I. We all had a lot of fun at the 1819 house bonding and playing games over there. Meeting new people and collecting pins was very
fun as well. We faced a lot of good teams and it was a challenge but when we came back to Minnesota we thought that baseball was so easy. Overall, Cooperstown was great time and has many benefits. I am very thankful that I had the opportunity to participate in Cooperstown. ~ Marko Sipila, 12AA Cooperstown 2016
2015 Orono team at Cooperstown
The 2015 Orono 12AAA Baseball team excitedly was the second Orono team to attend the famous national invitational tournament at Dreams Park in Cooperstown, NY this past summer. Orono was the only team from Minnesota the week they attended and achieved a 5-4 record out of 104 teams. All players were inducted into the American Youth Baseball Hall of Fame, and the team, as well as their parents, had a fantastic time learning about the history of the sport and meeting new players from across the United States and Canada.
Twelve Orono seventh graders, ten of which played on the 12AA Gopher State champ team this summer, were Orono’s first participant in Cooperstown. 104 teams competed from 24 different states our week in this historic place.
We played seven games over four days with wins over teams from PA and NJ, and some close losses to teams from VA, MA, CA and NY. Our team was competitive but we learned that throwing breaking balls with control and a strategy, and hitting them with power is a must to advance. The fields were immaculate, umpires pros and fences short (200 ft.) all making for a good baseball atmosphere.
Evan Zamec, Bobby McCrea and Will Buck all brought home their home run balls they hit during the tournament. The team visited the Baseball Hall of Fame one day and participated in a skills competition against players from all over the country. Overall, it was a fantastic experience for the players, coaches and parents alike. We’re excited to work with next year’s Orono team to help them prepare for the competition they will face. We’ve already begun doing so.